Alternative to Product Satisfaction Surveys

The Best Alternative to Product Satisfaction Surveys

Gather the product usability and satisfaction data consumers want to share – without the bias of surveys.

The thing about surveys is that nobody ever seems to want to fill them out. Product developers tend to want to know a little about everything having to do with their product, so they have a difficult time whittling down the survey questions into a format that doesn’t make users want to hit the big red X immediately.

What’s more, bias, errors and flaws are plentiful in product surveys. Often, survey takers are getting some benefit such as money, discounted or free product, or entry into a drawing. This means they are only completing the task in order to attain what they want. They aren’t giving thoughtful answers. There are other biases innate in surveys such as users telling you what you want to hear.

Even if a consumer decides to fill out a survey to the best of their ability, writing a good survey is a skill most research don’t have. Usually, there are biases unintentionally written into the questions. Some questions don’t leave room for ambiguity in the response. “Did the product meet your need? Yes/No” If you want to say, “Yes, but…” that may not be an option.

Product reviews overcome all the challenges of product surveys

Consumers don’t receive anything in exchange for their feedback, they just want to give their honest opinion to other shoppers.

The best part about product reviews is that reviewers discuss what was important to them. They aren’t just answering the set of product features you thought were noteworthy. By nature of them not mentioning the things you wanted to know about, you can assume it wasn’t of importance to that user.

You can mine product review data for everything you would be able to ask in a survey:

Likes

Dislikes

Competition

Specific features

Quality

Usability

Price

And more

Surveys vs. Consumer Reviews

Surveys typically create a bias or influence the consumer answer in a certain way. Filling out product review is a consumers choice which prevents many unintended biases from being present.